I know that some of you are yet
without Christ, and my message tonight is intended specifically
for you, intended to tug at your hearts, to persuade you to be
reconciled to God. I especially want to speak to
you who fear that you may not be welcome at the throne of grace,
that you may not be welcome to the Father's house. I'm preaching
this message especially for you. You'll find my text in Luke 15
and verse 20. This 20th verse is right in the
middle of our Lord's parable concerning the prodigal son.
And he arose and came to his But when he was yet a great way
off his father saw it and had compassion and ran and fell on
his neck and kissed him. Now my message is especially
for you also who are God's people. We've come together tonight to
worship our God. particularly to worship Him in
the celebration of the blessed ordinance of the Lord's Supper,
remembering our Savior. I want so much to give you a
word that will comfort and rebuke, that will humble our hearts and
give us strength, that will give us encouragement and joy and
cause us to worship God. in the consecration of our lives
to him and I can think of no better way both to persuade you
who do not know our God and to persuade you who know him well
to worship him than by reminding you of his great, marvelous,
indescribable love in the reception of sinners for Christ's sake. Our text begins as we saw this
morning in Galatians 3.14 with a very simple word, a little
three-letter conjunction here, and. It's commonly one of those
words passed over lightly by readers, seldom do the commentators
give any exposition of the connection with it. But this little three-letter
word is very important. This word and at the beginning
of verse 20 takes us back to everything that's gone before
it in this parable. It is the connecting word, connecting
this verse with what we've thus far seen. We've seen the prodigal
in his rebellion. We've seen him in his riotous
living. We've seen him wasting all his
substance in riotousness, in rebellion, in unbelief. In verse
17, we see him at his turning point. The scripture says when
he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my
father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. And then he makes a resolution,
a determination. He said, I will arise and go
to my father. That's a pretty good resolution.
That's a pretty good determination. And I'll say to him, father,
I sinned against heaven and before you, and am no more worthy to
be called your son. Make me as one of your hired
servants." And now in verse 20, we see this poor, destitute,
penniless, hungry boy. Yes, he's a grown man, but he's
still his father's boy, and he's coming home. I can almost picture
it. I know what's going through his
mind. I've been there. I got in trouble when I was 15
years old and packed up and left home. Ran away. Didn't want the consequences
of being there. And time came when I got hungry
and cold and busted and didn't anybody want me. And I didn't
have any choice, I had to hang my head and swallow my pride
and go home and face the music. His prodigal steps, every one
of them were heavy, heavy steps, hesitating. The nearer he gets
to his father's house, the heavier the steps and the more hesitating. He's ashamed. He's afraid. He's afraid. But he doesn't have any choice.
He's hungry. And he doesn't have any bread. It was hunger, not
love, that brought the prodigal back to his father. There's no
high, noble, selfless, disinterested motive in him at all. The fact
is he stayed away just as long as he could. But now he's hungry. As long as he had any hope of
helping himself, as long as he had any shred of hope that he
might do something to improve his condition, he would not return. But now all self-hope is gone. It was not the thought of his
father's love that brought him home. It was not the thought
of his father's honor that brought him home. but the great wealth
of his father's house in the light of his desperate need.
That's all. It was utter desperation that
forced him to look homeward and forced him out of the far country
and forced him to seek his father's mercy. And so it is with the
sinner. Sometimes I hear preachers talk
like the sinner has to get himself in a condition so that he has
a noble motive for coming to God. I've had men and women,
young men and women, to tell me, I just don't, I don't believe
my motives are right. Well, it's partly because motives
weren't right. There wasn't a right thing about it. He comes home
because of need, desperate need. Misery, desperate misery. Danger. Desperate danger. Nothing else. And when sinners
come to God in repentance, I promise you, they come with no higher
motive than this. I'm in need. And he's the only
one who can help. I'm in misery. He's the only
one who can help. I'm in danger. I have no other
refuge. I've got to come to Christ. I've got to have Him. I've got
to have Him. It's not love for the Lord, that's
good, and thank God it does come, but not initially. Not initially.
It's not a desire for God's glory, but rather desperate need that
brings sinners to the throne of grace. When we have nowhere
else to go, When we can do nothing else, when we have no other hope,
then, and only then, we will fall out to God's grace and His
mercy. The poor prodigal has nowhere
else to go, no one else to turn to, so he goes along the way
in utter humiliation, and the nearer he gets to his father's
house, the lower his head hangs. dare lift his eyes, he dares
not rush through the gate, he dares not run up to his father
and grab him by the neck and say, oh, I've missed you so much,
like a boy who's coming back from war. No, no. This boy is
returning from the bars and brothels of a faraway land where he wasted
everything his father put in his hands in the lust of his
flesh. He's returning from the dungeon
of his father's most implacable enemy, whose dungeons of legality
he chose in preference to his father's palace of grace. He's
returning because now his pride is broken. His rebellion is broken. He's humbled in his contrite. That's what I see in the Particle.
But our text speaks of the Father. I see Him, the Particle's Father,
and in Him I see God, our Father, the God of all grace, rushing
from his great and glorious throne to receive a poor, desperately
needy, broken, humbled, empty handed, naked, dirty sinner. Now let's look at the text line
by line. When he was yet a great way off. That's where we were
when God saved us by his grace. That's where you are who are
without Christ. a great way off. Sometimes we foolishly talk things
that we know are not so. He's not converted but I believe
he's near. There's no such thing as being near. Either you are
or you're a great way off. Your change of life, your resolutions,
Your determinations, your imaginary steps toward God, all leave you
as far off from God as you were in the beginning. No matter how
near others think you are, no matter how near you imagine you
might be, you're yet a great way off. You see, nothing you
do, no step you make, brings you one step nearer God. until
God steps out to you and brings you into his house. Oh how I
want you to return to God right now. But I won't deceive you. I want you to know what I know. You will never come home to God
until God himself by an act of almighty omnipotent, irresistible
grace steps out to you and brings you to himself. He was yet a
great way off. Look at the next line. When he
was yet a great way off, his father saw him. Look at him. There he is. broke, helpless, marred, unappealing, all because of his
choice and because this is what he wanted. There he is, fearful,
broken, humbled, there he is. Nobody will have it Nobody will
help him. Nobody wants him. There he is.
The object of my love. And I know what I'm fixing to
do for him. And I know what I'm fixing to do with him. And I
know what I'm fixing to make him to be. He saw it. Not just all that he had done
and all that he was. He saw him as God Almighty, our
Heavenly Father, sees us in Christ as nobody else can, saw all that
he would make him to be, and had compassion. Oh, I love that
word. It means co-passion. It's a very
strong word. It is an expression of God's
inexpressible love toward us in Christ. is a God, I'm not pausing because I don't
know what I want to say, I'm pausing because I want you to hear what
I'm going to say, full of compassion. Full of compassion. With regard
to the relationship between this particle and this man, his father,
between chosen sinners, And God Almighty, there was no anger
in the father, no resentment, no hostility, no harboring of
ill feelings, only love for that boy. And that's our God. Let me show you what I read just
a little while ago. Five times in the book of Psalms, five times
in the Psalms, this is what we read. You can write them down
and look at them later. Psalm 78, verse 38. He being
full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time he turned his
anger away and did not stir up his wrath. Psalm 86, 15. But
thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering,
Plenteous in mercy and truth. Psalm 111 verse 4. He hath made his wonderful works
to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. Psalm 112 verse 4. Unto the upright there ariseth
light in the darkness. He's gracious and full of compassion
and righteous. Psalm 145 verse 8. The Lord is
gracious and full of compassion. slow to anger and of great mercy. I take that to mean that God
the Holy Spirit wants us to understand this is the character of our
God. He's full of compassion, full of compassion. Look at the
next line. And when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran. Now I've repeated this I guess
every week for the last five or six weeks, dealing with this
passage. But I expect maybe you can bear it one more time. Here
is God Almighty in a hurry. In a hurry. He's in a hurry. to receive sinners coming to him for mercy
because he's full of compassion, full of compassion. We've had occasion in recent
weeks because of friends in trouble Amanda, Judy sitting here, their
families, brother David, Betty taking care
of things they have to take care of and we have had compassion on
them because they are part of us, because we have a connection
with them, we know them, we are part of the same family, part
of the same body. But it cannot be said, not even with regard to Bobby
toward that dear lady he loves so much that he's full of compassion. But God Almighty is full of compassion. Can you get that? whatever else there is in him
whatever else there is true of him whatever else may be said
of him of all those things it must be understood in the totality
of his infinite holy being God in glory is full of compassion
for needy sinners full of compassion oh he ran and fell on his neck have a couple of pictures of
that in the scriptures. You remember when Joseph made himself known
to his brethren? His brothers didn't fall on his
neck and kiss him. It looks like that's what happened,
but that's not what happened. Joseph fell on their neck and
kissed them. When the apostle Paul was about
to leave the Ephesians and they understood that they would see
his face no more, never again, they fell on his neck. fell on
his neck and went. This is another expression of
the greatness of God's affection and compassion to his people. The father fell on his neck,
this neck that had been like steel, stiff, rebellious, hard,
stubborn, obstinate. Surprising as it is to you who
do not know him. It's no surprise to me, this
is just like our God. Ran and fell on his neck and
kissed him, kissed him, kissed him, kissed him, and kissed him. Now I want to spend the rest
of my time tonight talking to you about those kisses. Here is a magnificent display. of the boundless, overflowing
love of God revealed to sinners who come to him by faith in Christ.
These kisses tell us that when a sinner comes home to God by
faith in his darling son, God welcomes the sinner with all
the fullness of his infinite love. God, who is full of compassion,
welcomes the sinner. with all the fullness of that
compassion. Let me call your attention to
five or six, maybe seven things clearly demonstrated in these
kisses. Turn first to Ephesians chapter three. deeply felt and demonstrably
expressed. This is Paul's prayer for the
Ephesians and for us, my prayer for me and for you. Verse 17,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you being
rooted and grounded in love. What a strange word. rooted and
grounded in doctrine, rooted and grounded in principle, rooted
and grounded in law, no, rooted and grounded in love, may be
able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length
and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that
passeth knowledge. Now watch this. that you may
be filled with all the compassion of God. Is that what it says? Pretty close.
That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. The infinite indescribable love
of God for his people pervades the whole of his infinite being. He's full of compassion. These
kisses express the great love of our Heavenly Father, that
eternal everlasting love that is deeply felt in the very heart
of God. I like good sound theology. I
like to read and study it. But I love it when God Almighty
throws a monkey wrench in the works of everybody's theology.
Here's God. He has no parts and no passions. Full of compassion. I know it's
speaking metaphorically. I know it's an anthropomorphic
term. It's talking about describing
God's character in human terms. I'm glad he does, otherwise we
couldn't know him. Here is love felt. Felt. Felt. And I want you to know the love
that's in me for you. And this is how I show it. He kissed him. These kisses speak
of the great manifestation of God's love to the hearts of believing
sinners. He falls on his neck and kisses
him. I remember years ago I heard
Brother Scott Richardson make this statement. He said true
love cannot be dormant. Like fire, it must be active. Like water, it must break out. It must show itself in words,
in actions, in deeds, and in expressions. Now behold the love
of God for us. You remember when our Lord stood
at the tomb of Lazarus weeping? The folks who saw him said, behold
how he loved him. Herein is love, not that we loved
God. but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Hereby perceive
we. We could not know it any other
way. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. There's no other way for us to
understand it because he laid down his life for us. God commendeth
his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Now listen to what the scriptures
tell us. Our Savior is God Almighty. He didn't have to die. He didn't
have to die. We had no claim upon him. There
was no appeal on our parts for him to die. And when he died
for us, our Lord Jesus knew that if he laid down his life for
such sinners as we are, he would get no love in return from us. except he himself created. Full of compassion. The Son of
God died by the hands of men as well as for the sake of men.
He died for men who wished that he should be made to die and
counted him worthy of death. And in dying for us, the Son
of God, our great Savior, took on himself, took into himself
an intimate, indescribable relationship, ignominious and horrible as it
is, with human sin, so that he was made to be sin for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works. Look at 1 John chapter 4 verse
19. Now move on. These kisses of grace are the
means by which we perceive the love of God for us. It is God
receiving us, communicates to us his love for us. I recall 23 years ago, my first
birthday after I moved here. Teresa Coleman gave me a plaque. I still have it. And it had this
verse of scripture on it. 1 John 4, 19. We love him because he first
loved us. Our Savior redeemed us. He died for us. He gave himself
for us. And now we love him because of
his love for us. We would give him no love in
return except he created. All right, here's the second
thing, back here. These kisses from the father
mean full forgiveness, freely bestowed. The Lord God declares, I, even
I am he, that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake,
and will not remember thy sins. As far as the east is from the
west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. The Lord
God Almighty promised in covenant mercy and promises us in his
word that he will forgive sin. The Lord Jesus Christ purchased
that forgiveness for us. Look at Ephesians 1. Ephesians
1 verse 7. You can probably quote it, but
I want you to look at it. The apostle speaks of Christ
in whom we have redemption. We have redemption through his
blood. Now this is what redemption is.
The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Though he's full of compassion,
Meryl Hart, he can't forgive one sin, not for you, not for
me, not for anybody, but by blood. But blood shed means redemption
purchased and forgiveness obtained. Through his blood, we have the
forgiveness of sins. Oh, what an infinitely, indescribably
horrid thing sin must be. or an infinitely, indescribably
meritorious thing, the blood of Christ must be, in whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now,
by his warm embrace, by the tender kiss of his grace, our Heavenly
Father makes us to know that our many sins are all forgiven. His father kissed him and he
said, boy your sins are all forgiven. And the son starts to say, the
father kissed him and said, now hush son, I don't remember anything. No, I don't remember that, no,
no. Not only that, I will never,
ever, ever, ever call it to mind. with another kiss. His son starts to say to him,
I'm not worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired
servants. And his father says, shh, I don't see any fault in
you. You're perfect boy. You've always
been perfect. You've never broken my heart.
You've never caused me pain. You've never injured me. You're
perfect. With another kiss, he tells his
son, now listen, listen, you, you want me to make you one of
my hired servants. Oh, what an insult to me. I'll
never treat you any the less graciously because of your many
sins. You're my son, without fault,
without sin, accepted by me. Here's the third thing. The Father's
repeated kisses mean complete restoration. Ephesians 2 verse
13, listen to this. Now in Christ Jesus, you that
were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. The Father kisses him before
all his servants. out in the open, as he returns
to him, and thereby owns him as his son. No wonder John wrote,
behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that
we should be called the sons of God. And beloved, now are
we the sons of God. This is not something we have
to wait on. The Father's kiss says I'm his son. I'm his son. With the kiss of his grace, The
father meets every need that boy had. I don't say it to her blame,
I told you I left home when I was a boy and I was pretty sure what
I was going to get when I got home. But I had to come home,
I was hungry. and I was prepared to take the
consequences and I probably would have done
the same thing I fully deserved it when I got home my mother
drew back to hug me and she hit me right in the mouth with a
fist right in the mouth and I fully deserved it and this boy he came
home and his father I kissed him. I wonder if Dad will receive
me. I wonder if I can get back in.
I wonder if he'll let me have a little something to eat. I
wonder if I won't have to shiver in the cold the rest of my life
till I die. I wonder if there's anything
I can put on my back. I wonder if maybe, maybe I can
find a little refreshment at his house. And with one kiss,
he answers all his prayers. Here it is, son. Everything.
With the kiss of God upon my cheeks, I am assured that all
my lost, willfully forfeited, wasted privileges are completely
restored to me. As a fourth thing, these kisses
from the Father are tokens of abundant joy. In verse 22, the father said
to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him and
put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither
the fatty calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this
my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. The
angels of God have been watching after him. Look here, there he is. as a result of it. The saints
of God gathered in the father's house. We've been waiting on
you son. New Year's coming. The father
rejoices. The prodigal rejoices. He's been
returned by the grace of God. Oh he came of his own volition. He sure did. He came of his own
will. He sure did. He came because
he wanted to. He sure did because he had to.
Because the Father made him willing in the day of his power, he came
home. And the prodigal rejoices. Oh, how this kissed prodigal
rejoices in infinite love that I could not destroy. and matchless grace that I could
not resist, in the fatted calf sacrificed for me, on whose blood
and righteousness I feed this day. How I rejoice in the seal
of his covenant, how I rejoice in the robe of his perfect righteousness,
how I rejoice in my Father's house. Fifthly, surely these
kisses from the Father's mean overflowing comfort for the hearts
of redeemed sinners. They mean the past is all forgotten,
the present is all peace, and the future is all secure. Here in the Father's house, there's
no possibility of expulsion. and no possibility of the son who has been returned
ever either being turned out or turning himself out again. Well how can you be sure he won't
leave again? Turn to Jeremiah 32 and I'll
show you. Once in Christ, in Christ forever,
none from him my soul can suffer. He will never, never leave me,
nor will let me quite leave him. Jeremiah 32, verse 38. And they
shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give
them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever for
the good of them, and for their children after them, or all their
children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant
with them, and I will not turn away from them to do them good.
Now watch this. But I will put my fear in their
hearts that they shall not depart from me. The father's kisses, if they
mean anything, means strong assurance of grace, absolutely free. His kisses assure us that his
mercy, love, and grace are all real. These incessant kisses
assure us that his love is immutable, unfailing, and everlasting. They
assure our hearts that we are indeed his. And one more thing,
the Father's intimate kisses mean intimate communion and complete
reconciliation established by grace. Brother Larry Brown asked
me this morning about 2 Corinthians 5.17. This is what it means.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. My father's kiss tells me that
he has established for me and given to me intimate communion
and complete reconciliation with him. Before the prodigal is brought
into the fellowship of the family, he had to be brought into fellowship
with the father. Before the sinner comes to the
family's table, He must have the father's kiss on his cheeks
before there could be any public rejoicing. There had to be some
private kissing. Only after he had received his
father's kiss could the prodigal endure the very next thing he
must face. His elder brother scorned. But you know what? With the father's kiss on my
cheek, it doesn't much matter to me what anybody else has to
say. It doesn't much matter to me
what anybody else thinks. I wish you didn't think that,
but that's alright. See this? That's my father's
kiss. Oh, I wish he hadn't said that.
See that? That's my father's kiss. That
means you don't matter. The elder brother scored. He
doesn't even respond to it. Why? Because the father has kissed
him. He said, you're mine. Who is it that God Almighty himself
will kiss? Every sinner who comes to him
by faith, by faith in Christ. How can the Lord God so tenderly,
graciously receive sinners? Because his son has put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. Well, where will God meet me?
At the mercy seat. Same place he's always met sinners,
in his son. Would you like to have the father's
kiss? All his kisses just smothering you. You want them? Oh, preacher. Can't tell you how I want them.
Let me tell you how to get them. Come on home. Come on home. That's all. Just come on home. Come on home. Come and welcome. Young man left home back in the
depression, took one of those hobo trips
and he hadn't seen his family in a long, long time. Mom and
dad were getting old and he had never come home and he wrote
a letter home and said to his mother, he said, Mama, I want
to come home and I know I'm not fit to come
home. And I don't deserve to be accepted,
but I'd sure like to come home. He said on Monday afternoon,
I'm going to be on the train that goes by the front of the
house. It rounds the bend. If it's all right for me to get
off, if you will, just take one of Dad's handkerchiefs and put
it out on the line. And if I see it, I'll get off
the train. If I don't, I understand. It's all right. It's all right.
So Monday afternoon came and he on that train, he rounds the
bend and he looks around the corner and his mama didn't hang
one of his daddy's handkerchiefs out there. She gathered up all
the handkerchiefs and all the bed sheets and pillowcases, every
white thing there was in the house and had the clotheslines
hanging plumb full. She said, come on son, welcome
home. father saw it, when he was a
great way off, had compassion on it, and ran, and fell on his
neck, and kissed it, and that's the character of our God. Amen.